Major Melvin Kimball is a World War II P-40 ace who was born in Providence and grew up in Greystone. He graduated from Hope High School in 1935, where he was a state champion wrestler. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1939, excelling in football and track. Kimball was one of the […]
Arthur Lasker was a World War II fighter pilot with the US Army Air Force. When the U.S. dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945, many believed the war was over. Arthur E. Lasker, a young pilot from New York who was serving with the 36th Fighter Squadron, 8th Fighter Group […]
Lieutenant Colonel John M. Lepry US Air Force (Ret) (1917-2003), a Warwick resident, flew 101 combat missions in a P-47 Thunderbolt over Italy, France and Germany in 1944 and 1945. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross, five single action Air Medals and the Soldier’s Medal. He was born July 17, 1917 and graduated from […]
LT George S. Lima (1919-2011), a Tuskegee Airman, was born April 4, 1919, son of Cape Verdean immigrant parents who settled in Fall River. His father worked in a mill, while his mother and other family members ran a boarding house and a grocery store. When the Depression hit in the early 1930s, the family […]
A Westerly native, Low enlisted in the Rhode Island National Guard in 1936 and graduated from West Point in 1942.
WWII fighter pilot who flew 161 combat missions in the Pacific, primarily in P-40 Warhawks, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and ten Air Medals. He joined the RI National Guard after the war, and was commander of the 143rd Air Commando Group at the time of his death in 1966. On Monday, March 7, 1966 […]
Thomas MacLean (1932-2017) exceeded his wildest dreams by becoming a USAF F84 Thunderjet pilot right before the end of the Korean War. The Warwick native joined the RI Air National Guard, where he was active from the early 1960s to the mid 1970s.
Retired Air Force Colonel Martha McSally hails from Warwick, and a Distinguished Graduate of the US Air Force Academy who became the first US female fighter pilot to fly combat missions, and the first woman to command an American fighter squadron.
Born in Providence, Perkins attended Mt. St. Charles Academy, played hockey and was the All-State football quarterback his senior year. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps three months before Pearl Harbor, earned his wings and shipped over to Italy. He flew B-17 bombers with the 353rd Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 301st Bomb Group. On January […]
CAPT Charles Frederick Pratte, Jr., U.S. Army Air Forces (1915-1945) B-24 bomber pilot, WWII; earned national recognition and the Distinguished Flying Cross for saving his damaged, brakeless aircraft by tying parachutes to gun mounts on forced landing. Disappeared January 22, 1945 on a mine-laying mission at Chichi Jima; declared dead 1946. Pratte earned four Air […]
Edward Francis Roberts was born in Fall River, MA on January 29, 1924. He earned the Air Medal flying transport planes in the Pacific during WWII. As a member of the Massachusetts National Guard he was activated for Korea. He transferred to the RI Guard in 1956, and at the time of his death in […]
WWII flight engineer and gunner on B-17 and B-24 bombers in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater. Operating from India and China, he flew 56 combat missions totaling more than 400 combat hours. He crewed the first-ever raid deep into China, and the longest mission flown in the war. He later flew on B-29s assessing A-bomb testing. […]